15 strategists of 2015 who are in a hurry to usher in change
Rajan, with limited powers, has been bringing up rules & regulations to ensure that unscrupulous businessmen do not game banking system.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
Raghuram Rajan- Governor, Reserve Bank of India
One Mean Governor
Academics hardly succeed in making things happen in practice. But Raghuram Rajan is proving that wrong. When many thought that the Urjit Patel Committee recommendations on inflation-targeting will gather dust in the vaults of the central bank, Rajan sold it to a cantankerous political system. That speculative fire about his relationship with FM Arun Jaitley getting reasonably doused, Rajan may probably get on to bigger and better things that the financial system needs. Rajan, with his limited powers, has been bringing up rules and regulations to ensure that unscrupulous businessmen do not game the banking system. But he knows something more needs to be done. For him, a contract is sacrosanct. Do not expect any leniency from the man who believes that Shylock was right in demanding his pound of flesh from Antonio because of the contract. Expect him to work with the government to put in place a law that could be similar to the US bankruptcy law which accepts business failure, but provides an orderly way for a business to re-emerge leaner. Financial markets will be another area where Rajan could get active. Currency market may have more instruments to trade in, and foreign funds may find it easier to hedge their positions in India. Then there’s his pet project — trading receivables for small companies. Next year should see the platform for trading become a reality.
Arun Jaitley- Finance Minister
Making Achche Din Happen
When Arun Jaitley stands up to present the next budget, possibly on February 27, the finance minister will have the unenviable task of finding resources to deliver on the achche din that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised. To do that, Jaitley will need to fuel the growth momentum, and also find money for large investments in infrastructure and a meaty allocation to the ideas of toilets, housing for all and ‘Swachh Bharat’ to name a few.
The next budget is when Jaitley gets his first real opportunity to stamp his imprint. To some extent, Jaitley’s hand was visible in the coal ordinance and he is expected to play an important role as the government readies to usher in reforms on multiple counts including power sector. He is also spearheading changes to the controversial land acquisition law that has stalled development in the infrastructure sector.
He has also already set the ball rolling for the goods and services tax, touted as one of the biggest tax reform post-independence.
Given the political mandate this government enjoys, India Inc will settle for nothing less than a path-breaking budget that will put the economy back on the growth track . — Our Bureau
The Game Changer
Vishal Sikka, the first non-founder CEO at Infosys, carries the weight of not just the 160,000 engineers at Infosys but also of a country of 1.2 billion. Some believe Indians follow “orders dutifully” than doing work “proactively”, hence, the reference to why not much innovation is coming out of the country. For this reason, if Sikka’s strategy to refresh his company is successful, he can certainly help put not just Infosys but even the country back on the global map of software development. Sikka has started on the right note. From boosting the morale of employees through a clutch of measures to assuring the customers, he has shown he means business. True, results of these steps will start reflecting only by the next quarter, but the current management can be credited for the improved results in the September quarter. Unsurprisingly, even investors have given a thumbs up to the Infy share, which has outperformed the Sensex. Come April, and Sikka will, for the first time, share the financial benefits and the investments the company is making in embracing automation and artificial intelligence. Around the same time, he will also need to decide if he wants to continue with the existing leadership structure at the company. April also marks the beginning of the sweltering summer. Sikka should weather past this without breaking too much sweat. — Varun Sood
Rishad Premji- Chief Strategy Officer, Wipro
On Board, Finally? One recurring question tossed every year by followers of Indian technology space is when will Rishad Premji join his billionaire father Azim Premji on the board of Wipro. To be sure, ever since Rishad, who is 38, first joined Wipro as an employee in 2007, the son’s anointment as a board member has been predicted by almost everyone. Even the hawker on city’s Brigade Road would have hazarded a guess, this newspaper believes! And unsurprisingly, only the track record of psephologists, who claim to know which party will form the next government, has fared better in this game. For the first time, ET will like to bet that this year will mark Rishad joining the board of the country’s third largest software exporter. In the past eight years, Wipro has lagged its peers, posting disappointing growth numbers. But during this time, a lot of internal changes at Wipro have a stamp of Rishad — from building intelligent technology platforms to stitching partnerships with pure-play start-ups and even acquiring companies. This stint has certainly made Rishad a more confident executive. Significantly, this year will see Wipro battle out with Infosys in the Bay Area as both companies, through their corporate venture arms, pick equity stakes in start-ups. — Varun Sood
Nikesh Arora- Vice-chairman, SoftBank; CEO, SoftBank Internet & Media
Ahead of the Pack
Nikesh Arora is a fast mover. When the 46-year-old vice-chairman of Softbank came to India with chairman Masayoshi Son in October, the duo announced deals worth nearly a billion dollars into some of India’s most promising companies. Softbank has said it could invest up to $10 billion in Indian companies, and leading those investments will be Arora, a former Google executive who left the search giant to join Softbank in July. Arora, one of the highest paid executives at Google, is now setting up his team at Softbank. In 2014, the company invested in Snapdeal ($627 million), Olacabs ($210 million) and Housing ($90 million). Softbank’s entry and Arora’s India connections have changed the power equation in Indian venture capital space. Born to Indian parents, Nikesh went to the US to earn his MBA degree from Northeastern University. He was a telecom analyst at Putnam Investments, a start-up founder and a top executive at T-Mobile International before he joined Google in 2004. Arora began his career at Wipro back in the early days of the personal computer. “It’s amazing how he differentiated himself and moved ahead of the pack so early,” says IT veteran Ashok Soota, who was the CEO at Wipro until 1999. —Jayadevan PK
One Mean Governor
Academics hardly succeed in making things happen in practice. But Raghuram Rajan is proving that wrong. When many thought that the Urjit Patel Committee recommendations on inflation-targeting will gather dust in the vaults of the central bank, Rajan sold it to a cantankerous political system. That speculative fire about his relationship with FM Arun Jaitley getting reasonably doused, Rajan may probably get on to bigger and better things that the financial system needs. Rajan, with his limited powers, has been bringing up rules and regulations to ensure that unscrupulous businessmen do not game the banking system. But he knows something more needs to be done. For him, a contract is sacrosanct. Do not expect any leniency from the man who believes that Shylock was right in demanding his pound of flesh from Antonio because of the contract. Expect him to work with the government to put in place a law that could be similar to the US bankruptcy law which accepts business failure, but provides an orderly way for a business to re-emerge leaner. Financial markets will be another area where Rajan could get active. Currency market may have more instruments to trade in, and foreign funds may find it easier to hedge their positions in India. Then there’s his pet project — trading receivables for small companies. Next year should see the platform for trading become a reality.Arun Jaitley- Finance Minister
Making Achche Din Happen
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When Arun Jaitley stands up to present the next budget, possibly on February 27, the finance minister will have the unenviable task of finding resources to deliver on the achche din that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised. To do that, Jaitley will need to fuel the growth momentum, and also find money for large investments in infrastructure and a meaty allocation to the ideas of toilets, housing for all and ‘Swachh Bharat’ to name a few.The next budget is when Jaitley gets his first real opportunity to stamp his imprint. To some extent, Jaitley’s hand was visible in the coal ordinance and he is expected to play an important role as the government readies to usher in reforms on multiple counts including power sector. He is also spearheading changes to the controversial land acquisition law that has stalled development in the infrastructure sector.
He has also already set the ball rolling for the goods and services tax, touted as one of the biggest tax reform post-independence.
Given the political mandate this government enjoys, India Inc will settle for nothing less than a path-breaking budget that will put the economy back on the growth track . — Our Bureau
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Vishal Sikka- CEO, InfosysThe Game Changer
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Vishal Sikka, the first non-founder CEO at Infosys, carries the weight of not just the 160,000 engineers at Infosys but also of a country of 1.2 billion. Some believe Indians follow “orders dutifully” than doing work “proactively”, hence, the reference to why not much innovation is coming out of the country. For this reason, if Sikka’s strategy to refresh his company is successful, he can certainly help put not just Infosys but even the country back on the global map of software development. Sikka has started on the right note. From boosting the morale of employees through a clutch of measures to assuring the customers, he has shown he means business. True, results of these steps will start reflecting only by the next quarter, but the current management can be credited for the improved results in the September quarter. Unsurprisingly, even investors have given a thumbs up to the Infy share, which has outperformed the Sensex. Come April, and Sikka will, for the first time, share the financial benefits and the investments the company is making in embracing automation and artificial intelligence. Around the same time, he will also need to decide if he wants to continue with the existing leadership structure at the company. April also marks the beginning of the sweltering summer. Sikka should weather past this without breaking too much sweat. — Varun SoodRishad Premji- Chief Strategy Officer, Wipro
On Board, Finally?
One recurring question tossed every year by followers of Indian technology space is when will Rishad Premji join his billionaire father Azim Premji on the board of Wipro. To be sure, ever since Rishad, who is 38, first joined Wipro as an employee in 2007, the son’s anointment as a board member has been predicted by almost everyone. Even the hawker on city’s Brigade Road would have hazarded a guess, this newspaper believes! And unsurprisingly, only the track record of psephologists, who claim to know which party will form the next government, has fared better in this game. For the first time, ET will like to bet that this year will mark Rishad joining the board of the country’s third largest software exporter. In the past eight years, Wipro has lagged its peers, posting disappointing growth numbers. But during this time, a lot of internal changes at Wipro have a stamp of Rishad — from building intelligent technology platforms to stitching partnerships with pure-play start-ups and even acquiring companies. This stint has certainly made Rishad a more confident executive. Significantly, this year will see Wipro battle out with Infosys in the Bay Area as both companies, through their corporate venture arms, pick equity stakes in start-ups. — Varun SoodNikesh Arora- Vice-chairman, SoftBank; CEO, SoftBank Internet & Media
Ahead of the Pack
Nikesh Arora is a fast mover. When the 46-year-old vice-chairman of Softbank came to India with chairman Masayoshi Son in October, the duo announced deals worth nearly a billion dollars into some of India’s most promising companies. Softbank has said it could invest up to $10 billion in Indian companies, and leading those investments will be Arora, a former Google executive who left the search giant to join Softbank in July. Arora, one of the highest paid executives at Google, is now setting up his team at Softbank. In 2014, the company invested in Snapdeal ($627 million), Olacabs ($210 million) and Housing ($90 million). Softbank’s entry and Arora’s India connections have changed the power equation in Indian venture capital space. Born to Indian parents, Nikesh went to the US to earn his MBA degree from Northeastern University. He was a telecom analyst at Putnam Investments, a start-up founder and a top executive at T-Mobile International before he joined Google in 2004. Arora began his career at Wipro back in the early days of the personal computer. “It’s amazing how he differentiated himself and moved ahead of the pack so early,” says IT veteran Ashok Soota, who was the CEO at Wipro until 1999. —Jayadevan PKPowering Ahead
Gautam Adani has announced acquisitions worth `15,500 crore although is group has a debt burden close to over `70,000 crore. The group is also working on a multi-billion dollar investment plan for coal mining, port and railways in Australia — all this at a time many business houses are struggling to deal with huge debts. While critics are raising issues such as possible funding from government-controlled SBI for Adani’s Australian projects or alleged irregularities in land acquisitions in Gujarat, the group hopes to power ahead. Executives at the Adani Group are confident that Adani will achieve his vision to commission 20,000 mw of power generation capacity, 200 million tonnes of cargo handling capacity at ports and 200 million tonnes of coal mining projects much before the target date of 2020. A significant portion of these targets will be met through big-ticket acquisitions. The 26-year-old group, which was considered a Gujaratbased industrial house, has expanded rapidly in less than a year. Now, the next generation of the family is also playing an active role, Adani is withdrawing himself from day-to-day affairs and looking at the bigger picture as his son Karan and nephew Sagar are becoming part of power and port arms, respectively. — Mitul ThakkarCyrus Mistry- Chairman, Tata Group
Change — Inside Out
The media or the investing fraternity may not have seen much of the man yet. But Cyrus Mistry, chairman of the $138-billion Tata Group, is making sure that consumers and employees are seeing quite a bit of him.He completes two years as chairman in 2014 and much of that time has been spent with these two stakeholders.ADVERTISEMENT
For now the Group is focused on three growth themes identified by Mistry: Health and wellness, the digital ecosystem and meeting aspirational desires of consumers. In addition to existing strong pillars, Mistryhas also identified four new business clusters backed by a $35-billion investment plan: retail, infrastructure, finance and defence.
He has given the Tata Group a new sense of direction, but he has to prove himself in terms of Group business performance, says Prof Kavil Ramachandran who specialises in family businesses at the Indian School of Business. The chairman is also hand-picking talent and moving them across companies to drive execution.
Expect Mistry’s influence on the Tata Group to become even more visible as the group branches out into newer businesses and growth themes, including the new airline Vistara. — Kala Vijayaraghavan
Isha & Akash Ambani- Directors, RIL’s Telecom and Retail Ventures
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Siblings Inc
The job is cut out for the Gen-Next at Reliance Industries next year as the ambitious telecom rollout is scheduled to go live. Being inducted into the boards of Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Retail Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, as its youngest directors earlier this year, Isha Ambani (23) and her twin brother Akash, are currently busy getting acquainted with the various modules of business. Akash, we hear, is a regular at the group’s operational headquarters in Navi Mumbai and has a keen interest in technology, business plan and content offerings. But even before his induction into the board, Akash has been associated with the telecom venture, involved in the development of products and digital applications. Sister Isha who till recently was a business analyst at McKinsey in New York — is also actively involved, especially in the marketing and branding aspects of the two key consumer-facing businesses. Isha, once ranked by Forbes as among the world’s top heiresses, is also a regular at the various initiatives that the Reliance Foundation, and many see her sharing or even taking over many of her mother’s responsibilities in the months to come. — Arijit BarmanADVERTISEMENT
Sachin Bansal- Co-founder, Flipkart
Is an IPO the Next Step?
The question uppermost in everybody’s mind about Flipkart is when is it going public? From a startup in a tiny bedroom in Koramangala, Flipkart has grown to a 20,000 people e-commerce juggernaut under the leadership of 33-year-old Sachin Bansal. The former Amazon employee, who along with Binny Bansal founded Flipkart in 2007, might just become India’s most celebrated business executive, if he takes the company public in the coming months. The company, which raised close to $2 billion in venture capital in 2014 alone, was valued most recently at a staggering $11 billion. Chandigarhborn Bansal, who is known for his quick decision-making skills, has assembled a highly talented team. “It’s better done than late,” is what employees are frequently told at Flipkart, which is fighting off an onslaught from Amazon, a tough rival that has promised to invest $2 billion to grow its India market. The Bansals acquired smaller competitor Myntra in 2014 for over $300 million and are likely to make a few major deals this year as well. — Jayadevan PKBig Data, Bigger Valuation
Mu Sigma, founded by Dhiraj Rajaram, 39, almost a decade ago, is now considered among the top global big-data companies. The ability to create and scale up a company that's on target to cross revenues of $250 million (Rs 1,581 crore) in 2015 has catapulted Rajaram into the league of top global entrepreneurs in big-data analytics. Mu Sigma helps 125 Fortune 500 customers, including Microsoft, Pfizer and Dell, to examine large amounts of data types in an effort to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations and other information. This year, Rajaram is expected to raise his game as he seeks to boost valuations or strike a strategic partnership to scale operations. Mu Sigma last raised funds in 2013 when US-based payments network firm MasterCard and a group of global investors put in $45 million (Rs 284 crore). The deal valued Mu Sigma at about at $1.5 billion (Rs 9,498 crore), with Rajaram and his family owning nearly half the company. Since then, Rajaram has been scouting for the right deal at the right value. Several industry leaders believe that he could exit the business by selling out to a larger services company. Rajaram is also aiming to establish a footprint in the products space, an area dominated by global players such as Palantir, Cloudera and Splunk.Ashish Nanda- Director, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Global Image Driver
India’s top business school IIM Ahmedabad, is on a new course. It’s getting a global blueprint and the person spearheading the vision, director Ashish Nanda, is setting one stretch target after another. To transform India’s top business school into the world’s best, IIM-A is ready with new initiatives that could be the game-changer in how the B-school mints future managers or ‘leaders of enterprises’. Nanda says, “Our institute’s vision is to educate leaders of enterprises. We are educating leaders of enterprises, not just managers of established business organisations. We are educating individuals who will be change agents that impact society positively.”ADVERTISEMENT
Nanda is taking IIM-A beyond the boundaries of traditional MBA. IIM-A introduced courses in its PG programme that cover contemporary topics. It has also approved a quota for international students, and is introducing deferred admissions for freshers who agree to get work experience.
The new leader has given a fresh momentum to the school. “Our competition has intensified, both among global and national institutes. And our ambition transcends being No. 1 in India. We want to be one of the best management schools in the world,” says Nanda. — Saumya Bhattacharya
Manohar Parrikar- Defence Minister
The Fortifier
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Manohar Parrikar is no stranger to creating beachheads. In the late 80s, along with a handful of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteers, he pretty much established BJP in Goa, which is now one of the Sangh strongholds. As its first BJP chief minister, this IIT Bombay graduate managed to balance the Sangh agenda while retaining the fun-loving image of Goa. Having proved himself, his move to New Delhi was a matter of time.Just a day before he was announced as India’s defence minister, Parrikar told ET what makes him tick: “I think there has been deterioration in quality of people everywhere, even among political parties, including the BJP and, especially the ones with a capacity to take strong decisions. And maybe I am seen as someone who takes strong decisions.”
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Decisions are what defence ministry is all about. And many of them involve billion-dollar deals, which, invariably come under scrutiny. Parrikar, in his new avatar, will also be key to Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign that depends a lot on getting the state-dominated domestic defence industry going.
Parrikar’s RSS badge also makes him perhaps the most important BJP leader to watch out for. At 59, he has a decade or two ahead of him in politics and could emerge as the No. 2 of Modi Sarkar next year. — Akshay Deshmane
More Miles on the Road
It was just six years ago when Bhavish Aggarwal graduated from IIT Bombay with a degree in computer science. After a stint at Microsoft Research, where he filed two patents and published three papers, he teamed up with collegemate Ankit Bhati to launch taxi aggregator Olacabs. The Bengaluru-based company, which runs India’s largest taxi aggregator service, received funding from Japan’s Softbank this October.Aggarwal and Ola, were chosen as the top entrepreneur and startup of the year in an ET survey in December. He gave up a 9-to-5 job, sensing there’s a big opportunity in hyper-local transport. Within a few months of starting out in April 2011, Ola raised seed funding from several investors including Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl, angel investor Rehan Yar Khan and digital entrepreneur Anupam Mittal. The company now has over 44,000 cars in its network.
Aggressive expansion has marked Ola’s strategy in 2014, a trend that will continue. There will be new initiatives as well — finishing schools for drivers and greater monetary perks. Ola will explore aggregation of newer services like two-wheelers, car pooling and auto-rickshaws. — Aditi Shrivastava
Mohan Bhagwat- Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief
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The Man Modi Can’t Ignore
Narendra Modi was theman of the year, 2014. But 2015 may belong to his boss, the Sarsanghachalak of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat. The relationship between the volunteer and the chief, often referred to by insiders as the beard and the moustache, has always remained curious. They are of the same age and were initiated into public life as pracharaks or missionaries of Hindutva. They have old ties and a shared past.But all these could not force Bhagwat to anoint Modi, initially. It was the groundswell of support for Modi and his pre-eminent position within the cadres and the understanding that only Modi could take the party beyond 200 seats in Parliament that finally led Bhagwat to support Modi.
Now, Modi just cannot ignore RSS. So, Bhagwat can legitimately be expected to assert RSS’ political programme and leave a stamp of social restructuring in the next one year and beyond. And however strong Modi is, he cannot take on RSS’ supreme leader. If Modi does so, all his detractors would jump up in Bhagwat’s defence, causing a crisis within the party and the government. So, it suits Modi to let Bhagwat run the social agenda, while he heads the government. — Rajesh Ramachandran
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Rajinikanth- Actor
A Political Sequel?
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One of his legendary punchlines goes like this: ‘I might be late, but I will be the latest’. The ‘mantrams’, his fan clubs, are a bit tired waiting for him to take the plunge into politics. But Rajinikanth has been ambiguous about this, forcing critics to wonder whether his ‘hints’ are sometimes an attempt to market some his yet-to-be released movies. The fact is, he has no punchline to the question: Will he join politics? This time round, the scene is different. Jayalalithaa is embroiled in a legal case, the DMK is staring at a sunset, and BJP is plotting a blockbuster entry. Perhaps the right time for a superstar to say ‘yes’. PM Modi met Rajinikanth during the thick of his campaign, triggering talks that BJP is trying to persuade him to join them. Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu are due in 2016 and BJP will want to make inroads in this crucial state with 18 Rajya Sabha seats. What the party needs is a personality who can make BJP the No.2, if not No. 1. Rajinikanth himself is no stranger to politics. He supported the DMK-TMC combine in 1996, BJP-AIADMK alliance in 2004, and announced his vote for AIADMK in 2011. The actor is said to have incurred losses with some of his recent movies. Will that change his mind or influence him to give in to BJP’s persistence? — Vasudha VenugopalDownload
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